Apple surprised customers this past weekend when it announced that itís discounted iPhone battery replacement program had launched well ahead of schedule. Of course, itís difficult to applaud the company for kicking off the program early when the entire reason it exists is due to the fact that Apple was discovered to have been secretly throttling older iPhone models for years. Just in case this is somehow news to you, letís rewind for a moment.

Late last year it was discovered that Apple has been secretly slowing down older iPhone models. Thatís right, it turns out that all the crazy conspiracy theorists who said Apple intentionally slows down iPhones as they age in an effort to force upgrades were correct. Well, they were half correct, at least; the supposed logic here is that Apple throttled performance on older iPhones in order to extend battery life as batteries start to age. Thatís what Apple claimed when it finally fessed up to the intentional iPhone slowdowns last month.

As part of the companyís effort to make things right with customers, Apple said that it would slash the price of iPhone battery replacements on older iPhone models from $79 to just $29, a $50 discount. The new lower price was supposed to take effect sometime in January, but Appleís new battery replacement program ended up starting early this past Saturday. Want to take advantage and get your iPhone battery swapped for $29? Youíll find everything you need to know in this post.

ON WEDNESDAY, APPLE confirmed what many customers have long suspected: The company has been slowing the performance of older iPhones. Apple says it started the practice a year ago, to compensate for battery degradation, rather than push people to upgrade their smartphones faster. But even giving that benefit of the doubt, there are plenty of better ways Apple could have accomplished the same goal without betraying customer trust.

Earlier this week, John Poole, a developer at Geekbench, published a blog post indicating that a change in iOS is slowing down performance on older devices. According to Apple, factors like low charge, cold climates, and natural battery degradation can all affect the performance of its mobile devices, and the company confirmed that this policy was implemented last year to counteract these effects.

As much sense as that explanation may make, Apple could have made plenty of choices that would have benefited consumers instead of penalizing them. These same choices could have also saved the company from the public shaming it suffered this week.

In a statement to WIRED, Apple confirmed Poole's findings, saying it was purposely slowing down older iPhones to compensate for the effects of age on their batteries. "Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components," the company says.

While many have speculated that the company has been doing this for years, Apple says the feature was implemented last year for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone SE. Now, with iOS 11.2, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are getting the same treatment, and the company intends to bring other devices into the fold down the road.

Rather than secretly hamstring the iPhone's CPU, though, Apple could have simply educated users about the limitations of lithium-ion batteries, says Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, a company that sells repair kits and posts repair guides for consumer electronics. While Apple does say in the iPhone user manual that batteries degrade over time and should be replaced, you'd have to dig through a few links outside of the manual to learn that by 500 charge cycles, your phone's battery will hold a charge of about 80 percent.

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Personally I am one of the aforementioned conspiracy theorists. I am rabidly opposed to buying anything from Apple. I see this latest incident as vindication.

A number of my friends have been saying that Apple is unfairly being raked over the coals for this because it's a hardware limitation in ALL phones because they use Lithium Ion batteries. BALDERDASH, I say.

Apple's behavior seems highly shoddy. I agree at the very least that an announcement should have been made on the subject at a minimum, rather than simply cutting or even halving a phone's performance without telling anyone it was coming or explaining what had happened afterwards until people started screaming bloody murder. It seems suspiciously convenient that most of their users are unaware that their phones -- still possibly worth $400-$500 -- might only get $100 in trade-in credit toward a newer fancier $1000 phone that's not weirdly and randomly slow, even though the old one only needed a $79 battery replacement.

Hoot. I still miss the stank out of IOS and an App collection I've been building since my original iPhone (orininal as in pre generational). When my 6 plus imploded last month - 2 months into a replacement battery from "Batteries +" - I cut rope and took a leap of faith from the peak of the iOS learning curve.

I made it official on Saturday when the Android Tablet displaced my original vintage iPads which no longer accept enough charge to turn on.

You read that right. Apple's "closed architecture" designs finally chased away an overly loyal early adopter. I remember when the company championed "open architecture" and rode that strategic decision quite successfully (jumped on board in the 80s with an Apple II+). Apple was founded by pioneering thinkers that were chased out by business types. It is a good thing some pioneering thinkers have survived to bring the competition to the game.

I don't use a iPhone so this doesn't affect me. That said, Android phones have their problems too. I quit buying Apple products when they switched from 605 processors to Intell chips. As much as I prefer the Mac operating system, I just can't afford to upgrade my software for the amount I use it (Adobe Creative Suite).

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A well balanced breakfast, being necessary to the health of the nation, the right of the people to keep an eat cereal shall not be infringed. Now who gets the ceral, the breakfast or the people?Sure I'll shoot your Glock. Just hang it with the rest of the targets.

Hoot. I still miss the stank out of IOS and an App collection I've been building since my original iPhone (orininal as in pre generational). When my 6 plus imploded last month - 2 months into a replacement battery from "Batteries +" - I cut rope and took a leap of faith from the peak of the iOS learning curve.

I made it official on Saturday when the Android Tablet displaced my original vintage iPads which no longer accept enough charge to turn on.

You read that right. Apple's "closed architecture" designs finally chased away an overly loyal early adopter. I remember when the company championed "open architecture" and rode that strategic decision quite successfully (jumped on board in the 80s with an Apple II+). Apple was founded by pioneering thinkers that were chased out by business types. It is a good thing some pioneering thinkers have survived to bring the competition to the game.

Anyway - I may understand how to work my phone eventually maybe.

I have had a Samsung S2 tablet for over a year now. Much happier with it over an Ipad. I love that you can add memory with a tiny card - unlike an Apple product. The S2 has a screen that is equal to that of an ipad (the resolution), unlike some of the other tablets

In 2010 I inherited an I phone 3 from my 12 year old granddaughter complete with Justin Beiber & Brttany Spears ringtones . It replaced my dinosaur age Nokia brick. It took me awhile to get used to some of the new to me wizardly things and had to suffer a couple of embarrassing ringtone moments but, with the help of some younger folks, I got things worked out and entered a new world.I liked that phone and saw no need to replace it. Last year I noticed that my internet capability was slowing down. After a couple of months it got to the point where if I clicked on a link within a thread or an on screen app icon I would be bumped off. I mentioned this to my grandson and he told me that Apple was slowly dropping the support for those older phones and now I have verification of that. I thought the same thing. Apple is trying to force the upgrade on users like myself. I resisted and that resistance was met with rolling eyes and clucks from family members about Papa being stubborn about upgrading.It was all for naught. I was gifted a 7 model for my birthday last year. I like the upgrade to thumbprint recognition, camera clarity and phone number blocking but like my old model 3 I'll probably use less than 50% of it's capabilities.

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This gun is liberty; hold for certain that the day when you no more have it, you will be returned to slavery. Toussaint Louverture

I got sick of some of Apple's updates - 1 particular one with the browser. Plus, each update made my ipad slower and slower it seems. I liked Andorid phones more - so, I stuck with the operating system completely. Now, other than an Ipod, no Apple stuff for me...